Like locusts, they came swarming out of the Badwater Basin of Death Valley.
They rode smoking Harleys in groups of ten. Each day another group of ten
wove their way through each other's dust clouds on the road from the abyss
to their assignations. The names of the leaders of the locusts, Samazaz,
Araklba, Rameel, Kobablel, Tamlel, Ramel, Danel, Ezequeel, Baraqijal, Asael,
Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqlel, Samspeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael and
Sariel would soon be on the lips of those who mysteriously disappeared.

Joshua Marshall
noticed with interest the antics of the riders as he sat on his front
porch in his rocking chair with his bible and his coffee. His small ranch
house sat off Route 372, just a few miles west of Pahrump, Nevada.

Pahrump is
a small town of a little over a thousand not far from the California border.
A rather quiet place until the events and publicity of the past year Joshua
thought as he recalled the events that made Pahrump famous.

Joshua's
interest in diabolical murder plots piqued with the death of a rather
notorious Las Vegas resident, one Ted Binion, on September 17, 1998. Pahrump
came into the picture two days after the death when $7 million in silver
bars was dug up which belonged to the late Mr. Binion. All that money
just buried in a vacant lot and he had driven by the place hundreds of
times. If only he had known. If only Joshua had known that his sighting
of the locusts would signal the beginning of an even more fiendish mystery
of brutal murder and vexing happenings. It would hit very close to home.

A deputy
sheriff caught the three men digging up Ted Binion's millions. The culprits
claimed they were removing ordinance that had been stored there. What
a surprise when the deputy found all those silver bars in the truck. Joshua
couldn't wait for the preliminary hearing to start in a few days, which
was going to be televised. Joshua dwelled on the story of the girlfriend
of the late Mr. Binion who also apparently was intimately involved with
one of the three men apprehended digging up the treasure in Pahrump.

The woman,
according to what Joshua had read in the papers and heard on the news,
was a real gold digger, or rather silver digger, had also been charged
with murder. He wondered if this drama would play out as interestingly
as the O.J. trial, which he had watched religiously. His friend Nathaniel
thought it would be even better.

"This
is going to be a most evil case of macabre murder and malicious mayhem,
Joshua," Nathaniel had predicted. They both were soon to become privy
to something even more sinister.

Joshua's
place was now run down, badly in need of a new roof and some overall attention.
Since his wife died a few years back he was too old and disinterested
in life in general to really care. His only special interests in life
were his bible, Harleys and the little girl next door.

At noon Joshua
had his usual microwaved lunch and then took his nap. He was seventy-five
but still was as mentally acute as ever. He and his late wife, his beloved
Katherine, had only one child, a son. David's helicopter allegedly crashed
and burned in 1973 as he and his crew attempted to rescue wounded soldiers.
There was no body to mourn over.

Joshua disbelieved
the explanation he received from the military when notified of David's
death. He knew from his discussions with his own comrades from the big
war that the scenario he was given did not jive with the physics of mid-air
collisions over friendly troops. It would take an explosion far bigger
than a SAM missile and the fuel tanks of a chopper to destroy the bodies
of the pilot and crew. The bodies would be blown from the wreckage, and
probably be recovered by the friendly troops they were to rescue. Joshua
would have been far more satisfied with an explanation like David's helicopter
crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain, on a mission over North Vietnam
to rescue a downed pilot. Or he was lost in the Gulf of Tonkin trying
to return to his aircraft carrier with the pilot he and his crew rescued.
He knew there were a lot of reasons for the many MIA in Vietnam. A chopper
crash near friendly troops wasn't usually one of them. His reluctance
to accept official explanations would serve him well in understanding
what was about to unfold.

Joshua did
have a granddaughter. He had not seen since the girl since she was twelve.
Her mother was a Native American, a Seneca. She remarried and they lost
contact. He thought about his grand daughter often, curious about how
she turned out. Of course, the girl was a woman now, in her late twenties
and probably with a family of her own. Joshua wondered if he had great
grandchildren.

The little
girl next door was quite the young lady. Eleven years old and just the
smartest and prettiest little angel Joshua had ever met. Her name was
Rachael and she called him "Pappy." She never knew her own father
or her grandparents. Her mother, Laurie, took off long ago for the Wild
West from some place in Pennsylvania when she got pregnant at seventeen
and never looked back.

In the summer,
Rachael stayed with Joshua until her mother got home just before noon.
To say Joshua babysat Rachael would be somewhat confusing. It was more
like she babysat him. They were very close.

Laurie worked
a morning part-time job at a local bank. She was a stunning woman. Many
said she should have been a model. She was also married. She had married
Marvin Johnston two years earlier. He was a local preacher and travelling
salesman, twenty years her senior. Joshua did not like Marvin and he could
tell Rachael was not particularly fond of him. Laurie found her old habits
hard to break and did some carousing on nights when Marvin was on the
road. When she did she would leave Rachael at Joshua's overnight and into
the next morning.

Joshua remembered
the morning he had gone over to Laurie's to get Rachael, only to find
her not at home. A bleary eyed Laurie answered the door in a very skimpy
teddy and informed Joshua that Rachael had gone on a business trip with
Marvin and his mother. Rachael adored Marvin's mother. A stranger who
wasn't wearing much of anything stood behind Laurie on that morning. He
held an all black Mossburg shotgun in one hand and something else in the
other. Joshua wondered where in the world Laurie found these characters
but would never ask. He suspected most of them were on parole. Actually,
he didn't blame Laurie for fooling around. He was not one for casting
stones and Marvin was such an intolerable boorish sort.

Marvin founded
a software consulting firm which occupied his time when preaching didn't.
Joshua didn't know what all they were involved in, but he did know one
of their current projects was debugging programs to deal with the alleged
Y2K crisis. Joshua knew about that because Marvin talked about it all
the time. He even incorporated it in his Sunday sermons. "Anything
to drum up business," Joshua said to himself.

Pastor Johnston
inherited several million dollars from his late father who had been divorced
from his mother many years ago. That money enabled the good reverend to
hire the best in computer nerds from Silicon Valley. Another important
project Marvin's company recently developed an innovative piece of virus
detection software.

Joshua first
saw the locusts on a Saturday morning when Rachael was home with her mother.
Peering through his powerful binoculars, Joshua was incredibly intrigued.
He often scrutinized the vehicles and the people in and on them cruising
down the highway in minute detail.

Joshua prided
himself on identifying classic cars and motorcycles, particularly Harleys.
He should because he worked on one almost every day for nearly fifty years.

The Hondas,
Kawasakis, Suzukis and their brethren confused him somewhat and so did
"modern" automobiles. Like Joshua often said, he could no longer
tell a new Chevy from a new Cadillac, but he could sure as hell tell a
'69 Mustang Mach 1 from a '69 Chevelle SS396. He recalled fondly the Mustang
he once owned, a '65 dark green convertible, black interior and top. Just
a six cylinder with a stick shift but it could really go. He thought he
was too stupid for selling it, but recalled fondly the woman who bought
it. And what a deal he gave her. First and only time he ever strayed on
his late wife. But not really he concluded. Even the President said letting
a young lady go down on you is not sex. He pondered over what had happened
to that girl, Sally. Joshua still recalled those hot wet lips fondly even
though it happened more than thirty years ago.

Sally, the
randy redhead in her early twenties, had just demolished her third vehicle.
"Joshua," she pleaded, "I simply must have this car. It's
me. Make me an offer I can't refuse, or I'll make you one."

"It's
going to cost you more for insurance than it is for this car, no matter
what kind of deal we make, Sally."

What sealed
Joshua's intense desire to play "let's make a deal" was her
rendition of the Wilson Picket tune Mustang Sally. It was just the way
she sang "Ride Sally ride, all you want to do is ride around Sally"
and what she did with her body while she warbled.

Sally really
could ride as Joshua soon found out and she owned that car a few hours
later. Sighting the locusts stirred memories of Sally. She didn't meet
her demise in that Mustang. No, a Hell's Angel bumped her off his Harley
as they were engaged in some sort of sexual liaison on the moving bike.
That was the rumor anyway.

Joshua knew
nothing of the computerized systems in the newer vehicles, but he could
make an old Harley purr. He considered rebuilding and reconditioning old
Harleys his favorite income-generating hobby. Something fun he did to
make a little extra money to supplement his Social Security.

That first
Saturday morning he first noticed the helmets. The locusts displayed classic
German army helmets with Y-straps. Long hair flowed from the helmet of
each rider.

The locusts
wore rather ordinary looking black leather dusters and chaps, except for
the insignia. Their dusters bore an unusual scorpion on the back, with
an inscription that Joshua could not read. In fact, he doubted it was
in English. He suspected it was Hebrew.

Then Joshua
noticed the vests. Not the vests but what dangled on a large chain in
the middle of the locust's chests. An Iron Cross. He recognized the Iron
Cross immediately. He had one that he took off a dead German soldier during
the Battle of the Bulge. He reminisced briefly about the cold weeks he
spent in Bastogne in December 1944 while serving with the 101st Airborne.
Joshua could barely make out the swastika in the center of the Iron Cross
worn by the lead locust. He couldn't see the date, but he knew it was
there. 1939 he assumed. Just like his.

The next
morning, Sunday, Rachael was again absent. She no doubt had been dragged
to her stepfather's church, as usual, to hear his fire and brimstone sermon.
Marvin preached a different version of his rapture theory just about every
week. It always started off with "Jesus may be coming today."
Joshua had visited Marvin's church once. Once was enough.

Rachael didn't
like his sermons and she was quite the biblical scholar even at such a
young age. She asked Pappy, "Millions of people are just going to
disappear? Duh!"

Joshua couldn't
argue with Rachael's summation of her feelings about Marvin's sermons.
Some might have thought it just a typical pre-teen philosophical statement.
Not him, he agreed with her, and it wasn't because he saw the movie The
Rapture.

Nathaniel
had brought over a tape of the movie several months back. Mimi Rogers,
Tom Cruise's ex-wife, stars as a kinky sex swinger who gets religion.
She becomes a born-again Christian and the plot involves her spiritual
journey and apocalyptic beliefs, culminating in a trip to the desert to
wait for the Second Coming.

Marvin drove
Joshua crazy because he sent over books for him to read which just gathered
dust. Marvin's favorites were books about the rapture and he was currently
enthralled with Christian fiction by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The
first book in that series was Left Behind which he had ordered Rachael
to take to Joshua and to tell him that if they wanted to talk about religion
they should read and discuss this book. It had become a best seller. Just
like that other book, Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch, thought
Joshua. Mindless drivel.

Sunday morning
another group of locusts with their German helmets, scorpion dusters and
Iron Crosses smoked by Joshua's place. Joshua was puzzled about only one
thing. The dandelions the riders had stuck in their mouths like toothpicks.

Monday morning,
Rachael saw the next group of locusts and explained the dandelions to
Joshua. "Pappy, I learned about dandelions in school." His ears
perked right up. "Because the leaves of the dandelion look like a
lion's teeth, the French named it 'dent de lion' which became dandelion
in our language."

Rachael then
read to Joshua from his very old King James, as she did every morning.
His eyes were failing and he loved her melodic voice. Only rarely would
she mispronounce a word and he would stop her momentarily and help her
pronounce it correctly. They had just finished the eighth chapter of Revelation
the past week, so this morning she began with the ninth chapter.

"1 And
the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth:
and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the
bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of
a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the
smoke of the pit."

Rachael paused
for a moment, "Pappy, you remember that huge cloud of smoke we saw
over there last week?" and she pointed to the western sky. "Sure
honey. I never did figure out exactly what it was and didn't see anything
on the news or in the papers. I still think it was some sort of huge explosion
at China Lake, the naval weapons center. Probably top secret stuff they
wanted to keep quiet."

"I never
heard of China Lake, Pappy. Are you sure the explosion wasn't from Nellis?
The kids at school talk about strange goings-on there all the time."

"Maybe,
but Nellis is the other direction. I talked to some government people
who did lead me to believe that it was from some secret project hidden
on the Nellis Nuclear Test Site, although they wouldn't say so on the
record. I suppose it could have been a crash of something they were working
on that strayed from the Nellis Bombing Range/Area 51." Rachael continued
reading, verse 3, "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the
earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have
power."

"Pappy,"
she interrupted herself, "Don't locusts in the bible usually symbolize
immorality and demonic activity?" He wondered where she got that
grownup talk. She never ceased to amaze him. "Where did you hear
that, Rachael? Marvin?" She nodded and went back to the book.

"4 And
it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth,
neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have
not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5 And to them it was given that
they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months:
and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a
man."

Rachael blurted
out, "Pappy, I know what a scorpion's sting is like. We learned that
in school too. Scorpion stings don't usually kill but cause a lot of pain."
She graphically described the swelling, troubled breathing, twitching,
drooling, slurred speech and severe cramps before she returned to reading,

"6 And
in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire
to die, and death shall flee from them. 7 And the shapes of the locusts
were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as
it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8
And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth
of lions."

Rachael frowned
and looked very puzzled. "Dandelions," she murmured, mostly
to herself.

"9 And
they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound
of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to
battle. 10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings
in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. 11 And they
had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose
name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his
name Apollyon."

Rachael closed
the bible, shut her eyes and was very quiet for minutes.

Joshua was
worried the child's imagination was running wild. She was prone to bad
nightmares that her stepfather blamed on Joshua's biblical tales. Preacher
Marvin said the book of Revelation and many other parts of the bible were
not to be taken literally.

Just then,
Laurie pulled in the driveway to pick up her daughter. Rachael kissed
Pappy goodbye and ran off. She turned, waved and yelled, "See you
tomorrow, Pappy!" Pappy was not the only one Rachael would see tomorrow.
She would see a locust, up close and personal.

Tuesday morning
Rachael woke her mother early for work. She didn't get much sleep that
night and she was anxious to get to Pappy's. A nightmare had awakened
her in the middle of the night. From what she could recall, it was mostly
about a huge swarm of locusts being swept up in a tremendous flood, and
she saw Noah's ark.

Joshua's
latest Harley project was a 1951 Panhead. "Why the name Panhead?"
Rachael had asked.

"Look,"
he pointed to the motor cover, "Doesn't that look like an upside
down pan?"

This Panhead
now sat in Joshua's driveway with a FOR SALE sign on it. It had taken
Joshua six months to rebuild the engine and recondition this one. He had
some difficulty finding parts. He felt it was his best job yet and he
was very proud of his work. Most satisfying of all was that this Harley
was very much like the first one he owned almost fifty years ago.

Tuesday morning,
another group of ten locusts passed Joshua's house. This swarming hoard,
however, rode much slower than the first three groups had. Rachael was
very excited and waved at the bikers. One waved back. Then he came back.
He turned around about two hundred yards down the highway.

He was riding
a 1990 Fatboy Grey Ghost. One of Joshua's all time favorite Harleys. When
he pulled in the driveway and got off his bike, the first thing that struck
Joshua was the man's size. He was huge.

Joshua liked
to watch wrestling on TV and this guy reminded him of a particular wrestler.
Except the stranger was clean-shaven and he was so strikingly handsome,
he was almost pretty like a woman.

The stranger
took off his duster and threw it on his bike. The sleeveless black vest
with the Iron Cross dangling on a chain down the front emphasized his
bulging biceps dramatically. Rachael ran right up to him.

"Hi
mister! Nice motorcycle. Did you see Pappy's Panhead?" she said,
pointing to it.

"Yes,
young lady, I surely did. That's why I stopped." He scrutinized every
inch of the marvelous machine very slowly and carefully, and then said,
"The bike that made Milwaukee famous." "No silly, the beer
that made Milwaukee famous, I saw the commercial." Both the stranger
and Joshua burst into laughter and Rachael looked totally puzzled.

She had quite
the temper for a young lady, much like her mother, and was peeved that
Pappy and the stranger were having a laugh at her expense. She snapped,
"The names of your Harleys like Panheads, Fatboys and Knuckleheads
are meant to correspond to the IQ of your typical biker dude, like you
two!"

Pappy kissed
her on the cheek. "You are too much. Please be good. We have a guest."

"Take
her for a spin if you like, mister," Joshua said. Rachael yelped,
"Can I go too, Pappy? Please, please?" Joshua looked at the
stranger who smiled and nodded.

Joshua no
longer took Rachael for rides on the Harleys because he didn't trust his
bike riding skills much anymore. He was bad enough with a car.

"Honey,
go get a helmet out of the house." She took off like a speeding bullet.
"And go to the bathroom!" he yelled after her.

"Mister,
you sure you can handle that baby?" Joshua inquired dubiously.

"You
mean the suicide clutch, right?" was the stranger's response. "Peter
Fonda did OK did he not? Why not me? Been there and done that. You extend
the forks a few more inches and do more chrome and some stars and stripes
and you got his bike in Easy Rider it looks like to me."

Joshua nodded
and muttered, "OK, OK, I believe you, I just wanted to make sure,
you know, with the kid tagging along. Actually, the '51's were far safer
than the 52's, the first year for the foot shift and hand clutch. Big
Problems with the shifter rod and lever."

The stranger
and Rachael were gone for more than two hours and Joshua was beside himself
with worry. Then to top it off, Rachael's mother arrived to pick her up.
Laurie was livid.

"You
let Rachael ride on that frigging motorcycle with a total stranger?"
she snarled.

Joshua became
a little perturbed himself at Laurie's attitude. "Rachael insisted
and he's OK. Check him out for yourself. I'll anxiously be awaiting your
apology and won't that be a first." But he thanked the Lord when
they returned a few minutes later, just as Joshua was being thoroughly
cussed out.

Rachael was
smiling and laughing and hanging all over the stranger. Laurie stopped
her complaining when she saw him.

Laurie smiled
demurely and said, "Well, thank you for entertaining my daughter.
Looks like she had a bunch of fun."

"Oh,
mommy, he's so cool! We stopped and got ice cream. He told me stories
about Egypt. He was there and will help me with my homework. You know,
that big project I have to do for geography on Egypt." She ran into
the house.

The stranger
slowly approached the porch. "My name is Danel."

Laurie snarled,
"Hey slick, what does a biker know about Egypt? What are you, a Hell's
Angel?" She was still a little miffed yet intrigued by the stranger.

Danel sat
on the steps and began spinning yarns about the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Rachael heard his voice and came back outside and sat on the steps beside
him, snuggling as close as she could get, as he put his arm around her.

Laurie raised
her eyebrows at Joshua. He thought she was going to go into one of her
rant and rages.

Danel talked
on and on about his travels, telling of his exploits riding his Harley
from Cairo to Jerusalem. Laurie became captivated by his charm, obvious
intelligence and warm wit, just as her daughter had.

Laurie couldn't
take her eyes off the stranger. She asked Rachael, "Hey, how about
you and me go make the nice man and Pappy some lunch?"

"Could
you guys go for a bite to eat?" she said, looking at the wrinkled
old man and the drop-dead gorgeous stranger.

"Yes,
ma'am," replied Danel. "Please take your time. Mr. Marshall
and I have some business to discuss."

"Oh,
I almost forgot, Joshua," Laurie added reluctantly. "Here's
another book Marvin wants you and Rachael to read. It's called Apollyon
by Tim LeHaye and Jerry Jenkins and is a sequel to that other book he
sent over, Left Behind. It's all about locusts who torture unbelievers
who are left after the rapture or some such thing."

"Mom,"
Rachael added excitedly, "Joshua and I were just reading and talking
about the locusts and Apollyon."

"Now
isn't that a coincidence, Honey," Laurie replied curtly. "But
you two better not let your imagination run wild again with this stuff.
You know how upset Marvin gets about your tall tales. Next thing you know
you'll be talking to these locusts."

The girl
and her mother went off to make lunch. The stranger said matter-of-factly,
"Just name your price, Mr. Marshall."

"$20,000
would be in the ballpark," Joshua stated hopefully.

The giant
went to the bag on the back of his Fatboy and pulled out a large envelope.
He took out a wad of $100 bills and began placing them in Joshua's hands
as he counted them. When he got to 200 he added a few more for the taxes
and transfer fees.

The stranger
gave Joshua all the information necessary to transfer ownership. The name
on his California driver's license was Danel Jones. Joshua commented,
Didn't they make a typo on your license, shouldn't it be Daniel?"

"No,"
Danel corrected him, "That's what my mother put on the birth certificate,
Danel." He asked Joshua to have all the paperwork ready the next
morning and he said he would be back with someone else to drive the Panhead
he just purchased.

The mother
and daughter returned with the food. Their leisurely lunch was drawn out
considerably by Danel's continued tales of the places he had visited in
Israel and Egypt.

The three
of them listened in spellbound attention to Danel's description of the
Great Pyramid at Giza. He seemed to know so much about the construction
and other details of the only remaining wonder of the ancient world.

Danel pulled
a one dollar bill out of his wallet. "Rachael, see what's on the
back? The Great Pyramid. And a big eyeball. What does that mean do you
suppose?"

"Well,
Rachael," Danel explained, "the Great Pyramid covers over 13
acres. It is absolutely the greatest archaeological discovery of all time.
Napoleon and his army defeated the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of the
Pyramids in 1798. Only after that and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone
by one of Napoleon's officers and the unraveling of hieroglyphics did
the Great Pyramid begin to be understood. I know you are a student of
the bible. The good book talks about the Great Pyramid."

Danel picked
up the bible sitting on the table, turned it to Isaiah 19:19 and read,
"In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of
the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD."
He continued into verse 20, "And it shall be for a sign, and for
a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt ..."

"The
Great Pyramid," Danel continued, "was never used for a tomb.
Nobody was ever buried there. What then was the purpose? Cheops, also
known as Khufu, for whom it supposedly was intended was buried elsewhere.
Just ask those old historians Herodotus and Diodorus. Who directed the
building of this supernatural structure? Job? Enoch? The Nephilim, the
fallen angels? The theories are mind-boggling. Why the big eye on the
dollar bill? Some say it is a Masonic conspiracy. I think not."

"Danel,"
Rachael interrupted, "Let me go get my map of Egypt I'm using for
my geography project and show me where it is." She quickly ran off
and returned in but a few minutes.

"Right
there it is," Danel instructed as he pointed to the spot ten miles
south of Cairo where the Great Pyramid stands. "The Great Pyramid
is the only remaining wonder of the ancient world. There were seven. Now
there is one. Modern man does not possess the architectural expertise
to build such a structure as the Great Pyramid. So who built it? Maybe
I did."

"You
are very silly Danel," Rachael giggled.

Joshua, Rachel
and Laurie listened in awe as the stranger told of Napoleon and Alexander
the Great and their supernatural experiences in the Great Pyramid. "Both
were demon-possessed!" Danel exclaimed. "They both wanted to
be God and had visions in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid. Those
demons were exorcised and both went on to meet their demise as world rulers."

Rachael then
asked, "Danel, would you please tell me about the other wonders of
the ancient world? Were any others in Egypt?"

"The
other wonders of the ancient world, all of which no longer exist, were
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple
of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of
Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Lighthouse was in Egypt so
I'll tell you about that one."

"I know
about Babylon!" Rachael blurted out. "The Mother of Harlots
of Revelation, the great whore."

"Rachael!"
Laurie scolded, "I told you not to use that word!"

"OK,
OK, Mom. 'And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE
GREAT.' You tell me what was written on her forehead. I know, we'll ask
Marvin, God's chosen one, according to him," Rachael said with disgust.

"Well
girls," Danel interrupted, "Let me tell you about the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens to please his
beautiful wife, Amyitis. She was the daughter of the king of the Medes
and very homesick. Her husband tried to replicate the vaulted terraces,
vaults, pillars and rooftop gardens of her homeland. Nebuchadnezzar created
a green and leafy artificial mountain that contrasted dramatically with
the flat dry topography of Babylon. Watering that garden was a real problem.
The king had a huge chain pump constructed to lift water into the air
and above the garden. This was all for his lovely queen, Amyitis. She
was the fairest of them all, Rachael, just like your mother."

Joshua saw
the look in Laurie's eyes. Like a doe blinded by headlights. He thought
there was some kind of trouble brewing here.

"Danel,"
tell me about that other wonder of the ancient world in Egypt. I need
this for my report for school. And quit flirting with my mother,"
Rachael insisted somewhat indignantly. "You are my boyfriend!"
she said and broke into a smile.

"Ah,
the Pharos of Alexandria. The lighthouse on the island of Pharos in the
harbor of Alexandria. That lighthouse guided ships into the harbor for
1,500 years but was then destroyed by an earthquake more than six hundred
years ago. It was the tallest structure anywhere except for the Great
Pyramid. More than five hundred feet high and the view overlooking the
Mediterranean Sea was breathtaking."

"And
how would you know?' Laurie asked rather rudely. She was becoming impatient
with this conversation for some reason and said to Danel, "Do you
take big girls on the Harley of yours or just little girls?"

Danel gave
her a seductive look that would have made an iceberg melt.

Joshua interjected,
"Well, if you two are taking off, how about Rachael and me going
to Las Vegas and doing a little shopping. I told her I would get her some
school stuff, and it's not all that far off."

Rachael was
ecstatic and Laurie said, "Sure but why don't you stay at Granny
Johnston's tonight. It will be dark by the time you two get done fooling
around and Joshua, you shouldn't be driving at night."

Granny was
Marvin's widowed mother who lived in a large house on the outskirts of
Vegas. Joshua actually liked her and she acted like she had a schoolgirl
crush on him. Rachael and he had stayed overnight at her place on numerous
occasions when they visited the big city for one reason or another, and
she loved having them as guests.

Joshua began
to salivate when he thought about the chilli at Texas Station. He loved
all eight varieties. But he dreaded that damn "Race for Atlantis"
3-D ride which Rachael was certain to drag him on again.

Laurie was
still wearing her favorite pink polka dot dress. She had worn it to work
because there was a little party that morning for her girlfriend who was
moving to New York.

"Don't
you want to change?" asked Danel, as he inspected her from head to
toe, resting his gaze on her pink spiked heels that matched her dress.
Her long auburn had a tint of the same color.

Laurie shook
her head no. She decided not to change from her favorite dress for one
very good reason. Danel was going to get a look at her long and lovely
legs.

"Let's
go!" she demanded demurely as she picked up the helmet Rachael had
tossed on the lawn and got on the back of the Fatboy.

Danel roared
out the driveway and headed east on route 372, intending to head toward
Death Valley. Laurie held him tightly around the waist. She could not
believe how hard and muscular he was.

Rachael talked
a mile a minute on the way to Las Vegas and Granny Johnston's. She was
usually good for a half-hour of non-stop chatter. Finally she stopped
telling Joshua about her new computer and closed her mouth and her eyes.

Joshua popped
in one of the Bible tapes he had in the glove compartment. It happened
to be Tape One, Genesis, the first ten chapters. They listened in silence
to the entire tape. Rachael then rewound it halfway, to the beginning
of the sixth chapter.

"1 And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters
of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they
chose."

Rachael paused
the tape after the first two verses and asked, "Pappy, who are these
sons of God? Are they angels?"

"Yes,
Rachael, angels. Bad angels. They disobeyed God."

"Pappy,
they married women?" she asked, very concerned.

Joshua never
lied to her about the bible. He answered her as best he understood the
good book. He was also somewhat of a Hebrew scholar and Rachael had been
getting lessons as of late.

"Rachael,
some angels probably married the women. The word 'wives' in verse 2 is
not accurately translated from the Hebrew. It should be translated 'women'
most scholars say."

Joshua reluctantly
went on because he knew Rachael would keep questioning him if he did not.
"We know for sure that the angels had sex with the women because
they had children. The children and the children's children were giants.
Like Goliath. This is why God caused the flood and spared only Noah's
family, because they did not disobey God."

Rachael said
not a word. She closed her eyes and fell asleep. The remainder of her
overnight adventure was uneventful. Not so for her mother.

At this very
moment Danel had just turned onto Route 127, heading toward Death Valley
Junction. The bike lurched and Laurie's breasts momentarily pressed up
against his back.

The pipes
on the bike were very loud and Laurie had to get very close to Danel's
ear to ask, "Where are going?" She couldn't resist the playful
urge to gently stick her tongue in his ear.

Danel didn't
reply but just shrugged and gave the bike more gas. He did return her
flirtatious gesture with a brief squeeze of her thigh.

Laurie pinched
him back roughly and snuggled up as close as she could. Her long auburn
hair and her pink and white polka dot dress were blowing in the wind,
a sight to behold. She felt a sense of total freedom and exhilaration
like she had never felt before.